Asylum seekers have right to full NHS care, high court rules, but government considers appeal

All asylum seekers who have not been ordered to leave the UK must be given free NHS healthcare, the high court ruled yesterday, overturning a controversial government policy allowing them only GP and emergency care.

The ruling could apply to anywhere between 200,000 and half a million people, the medical charity Medact said.

They include more than 11,000 asylum seekers who have been refused refugee status but remain in the UK because they have no safe route home. The government allows them accommodation and a small amount of benefit, but they cannot be treated at an NHS hospital unless they turn up in the A&E department or the sexual diseases clinic - and even so they cannot receive NHS treatment for HIV.

But yesterday the high court ruled in a judicial review that a Palestinian, known as A, must be given NHS treatment for liver disease, which could be lymphatic cancer. A's asylum application failed but he cannot return, even though he wants to, because of travel restrictions.

The court ruled that all failed asylum seekers, until their removal from the UK, should be considered by law to be ordinary residents and entitled to NHS care.

The Department of Health was given permission by the high court to appeal directly to the House of Lords. Its contentious policy on asylum seekers and the NHS was constructed in the wake of publicity alleging people were coming to the UK in search of free medical care and had become a burden. Critics, however, say that case has never been proved.

A, who has been given accommodation and an allowance of £35 a week, was refused treatment for his liver disease because of his immigration status and because he has no money to pay. The hospital said it was following NHS guidance.

Lawyers for A challenged the government guidance, arguing that trusts cannot refuse NHS treatment to somebody who is legally resident in the UK and cannot go home. They also argued that the government was in breach of its human rights obligations to hundreds of thousands of people by refusing them treatment.

The National Aids Trust, one of a number of organisations that made representations to the court, said it hoped the government would accept what it called a landmark decision. "For years failed asylum seekers have been denied free treatment for long-term conditions including HIV. Many have faced enforced ill-health as government policy has left them destitute and without healthcare," said Deborah Jack, chief executive of the trust.

Medact, which campaigns for access to healthcare worldwide, said there were "numerous cases" of asylum seekers being refused NHS treatment.

Lisa Power, head of policy at the Terrence Higgins Trust, said: "HIV treatment reduces the chance of the virus being passed on, so not only will it protect the health of individuals, it will also have a positive effect on public health."